New bill being introduced for school truancy.

Nearly one-third of Santa Fe's public high school students and about 1 in 5 elementary and middle school students are habitually truant, according to a new report by the school district.

According to state regulations, a student is habitually truant if he or she has accumulated 10 or more days of unexcused absences within an academic year. Based on state data, 51,034 of New Mexico's 335,000 public school students — some 15 percent — were classified as habitually truant in 2011-12, according to the report.

In Santa Fe, many schools are maintaining attendance rates of at least 90 percent, which might sound high, but that means many students still could be missing up to 17 days a year, and therefore would be classified as habitually truant, explained Richard Bowman, the school district's director of accountability and achievement.

Santa Fe Public Schools wants all of its schools to attain a 95 percent student attendance rate. Right now, however, only three schools are accomplishing that goal.

The news comes as two state legislators, Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, and Rep. Larry Larrañaga, R-Albuquerque, are proposing a bill that would suspend driving privileges for teens who violate the state's compulsory school attendance law by being habitually truant.

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Based on 80-day attendance records, the Santa Fe district's data indicate truancy rates range from an average of 19 percent at the elementary and the middle school levels to more than 32 percent at the high school level.

The district's data are based on how many hours — not days — students are absent from school. Technological challenges often frustrate teachers who attempt to update attendance records online, according to Superintendent Joel Boyd, which makes it tough for the district to figure out how many students are missing full days of school.

The school board and Boyd received a presentation on truancy this week. The district has created a truancy task force to compile more detailed information and come up with measures to address the problem.

Most troubling is the attendance rate at the Academy at Larragoite: not quite 52 percent. Santa Fe High School's rate is just under 80 percent.

El Dorado Community School tops the list, with an attendance rate of over 98 percent. Wood Gormley Elementary School has a rate of just over 95 percent, and Carlos Gilbert Elementary is just under 95 percent.

The rest of the schools in the district have attendance ranging from about 89 percent to 94 percent -- which isn't good enough for Boyd, who said ideally, all schools should reach 100 percent.

"But we feel 95 percent is a realistic goal," he said. "Some schools look really strong, some have significant challenges. We do know that we have some truancy issues."

The report cites many factors that play a role in truancy, including boredom, bullying, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, low self-esteem and lack of parental oversight.

Though the state requires school districts to contact parents of truant students with a letter, many participants in a Wednesday discussion said this is not easily accomplished. Sometimes, they said, the mail bounces back to the district unopened, and other times students intercept such missives in an effort to keep their parents out of the loop.

Several school board members suggested educators begin reaching out to parents by phone to ensure they get the message. But Santa Fe High School teacher Leah O'Shell said if she had to call every parent of every student who missed a class, she'd be making at least 100 phone calls.

The district does not employ truancy officers. Nor does the city of Santa Fe maintain a truancy court.

The school district's report ties academic achievement to student attendance, noting, for instance, that 64 percent of children who maintained good attendance in kindergarten and first grade could read to grade level, whereas only 17 percent of third-graders who were chronically absent in those grades could read to grade level.

While not all districts report their attendance and truancy rates, state data included in the district's report indicate that Santa Fe's truancy rates are among the highest in the state — though when it comes to elementary schools, Roswell's rate is over 28 percent. Gallup-McKinley schools have a 13.5 percent truancy rate at the elementary school level, while Española's is just over 11 percent.

Truancy data for the Alamogordo Public Schools was not readily available as of press time.